My guiding principle of “the exploration of ideas” captured in two quotes
Sir Alec Cairncross recalled Keynes’s view on how a new idea was born.
I particularly remember a lecture in 1933 when Keynes tried to convey how new ideas were born. Never did they arrive, he said, with the hard edges that later critics came to attribute to them when trying to define their terms...Ideas were apt to be like fluffy balls of wool with no fixed outline, and the relationship between concepts when first perceived was likely to be equally woolly. Keynes mistrusted intellectual rigour as likely to get in the way of original thinking, and saw that it was not uncommon to hit on a valid conclusion before finding a logical path to it.
Dr Samuel Johnson
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”
Quote of the Month
Joan Robinson was the most outspoken guardian of the Keynesianism of J M Keynes. She was the lead critic of the “Bastard Keynesianism” that emerged in the 1950s - mostly in the US - and is still practiced today. Indeed “Bastard Keynesianism”-on-steroids may - much to the chagrin of modern day Keynesians have inadvertently begun morphing itself into the dreaded Modern Monetary Theory a.k.a the Magic Money Tree.
“The bastard Keynesian doctrine, evolved in the United States, invaded the economic faculties of the world, floating on the wings of the almighty dollar.”
Henry Kissinger
When asked why there was a dearth of statesmen and women in the West today, HK bluntly replied: “Because none of them read history”.
Joerg Wuttke, former president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China
“I would recommend moving out of China only in a few cases, such as where you get on the Americans’ radar screen for sanctions or where you are overrun by Chinese overcapacity. Otherwise, I can only advise European companies to stay in this fitness club to be globally relevant. Because if you don’t sit at the table, you’ll be on the menu at some point.”
Larry Summers
“Somebody from a developing country said to me, ‘What we get from China is an airport. What we get from the United States is a lecture.’”
Bertrand Russell (most likely) and an old lady
Some say it was Bertrand Russell who gave a public lecture on astronomy describing how the earth orbits the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” Said the old lady, “You’re very clever, young man, very clever. But it’s turtles all the way down!”
Jean-Claude Junker, May, 2012
“We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it.”
Juxtapose the above with this quote. The former editor of Le Monde, Jean-Marie Colombani, noted the current paradox in France is best described as follows:
“Macron is hated because he did what he said he would do.”
Macron does not face re-election.
Henry Ford and Walter Reuther, a union leader
In the 1950s, when Henry Ford II introduced some automatically controlled machines at a Cleveland plant, he asked the union leader, “Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?” Walter replied, “Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?”
Ben Franklin describing the dangers of democracy.
“Two wolves and one lamb voting on what to have for dinner.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Come, my friends,
Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu -
Chapter 53
If I have even just a little sense,
I will walk on the main road and my only fear will be of straying from it.
Keeping to the main road is easy,
But people love to be sidetracked.
When the court is arrayed in splendor,
The fields are full of weeds,
And the granaries are bare.
Some wear are gorgeous clothes,
Carry sharp swords,
And indulge themselves with food and drink;
They have more possessions than they can use.
They are robber barons.
This is certainly not the way of Tao.